Shore Land Stewardship Council Presents Critical Area Education Effort to Kent County Commissioners
Shore Land Stewardship Council, an initiative of Adkins Arboretum, is providing information to landowners in the region about how to care for their properties in the Critical Area. Recent legislative changes expanded the authority of the Critical Area Commission to further protect Maryland's tidal shoreline from the negative impacts of growth and development.
Through the organization's First Stop Campaign, property owners are encouraged to contact their local planning offices first to determine which permits they need before embarking on any landscaping changes, such as removing trees or altering their shoreline. As part of a pilot project, new Critical Area property owners in Kent County will receive an information card about the First Stop Campaign and a coupon for the First Stop pewter blue crab key chain in an informational mailing from the Kent County Department of Planning, Housing and Zoning.
Ellie Altman, Executive Director of Adkins Arboretum and member of Shore Land Stewardship Council (SLSC), recently presented information to the Kent County Commissioners on the organization's regional grassroots approach to reach those who make the decisions about the care of private lands. Convened by Adkins Arboretum, SLSC is a partnership with nonprofit organizations, businesses and government agencies whose purpose is to inform and empower individuals, businesses, communities and local governments in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot counties to use more environmentally sound land stewardship practices in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, the 1,000 foot ribbon of land around the Bay and its tidal tributaries. The organization's overall goal is to have a positive impact on water quality and the health of the Chesapeake Bay in keeping with the goals of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area law.
SLSC next plans to give landowners the tools to implement stewardship practices that exceed the requirements of the Critical Area law through the publication of an illustrated guidebook on how to care for their properties in the Critical Area. The guidebook is scheduled to be printed later this year and will be made available free of charge through the Kent County Department of Planning and Zoning and Adkins Arboretum.
Members of the Consortium, contractors, state and local regulatory agencies, realtors, developers, conservation-oriented nonprofits, and private landowners in the Upper-Shore, meet regularly to discuss these best landscaping practices and to communicate them to Critical Area property owners.
